Thread: whats a good price on a paint job

Tweet

Roger I was told the same thing, and to use epoxy primer if you aren't able to top coat right away.

I just got done finishing the my 1950 Ply wagon in epoxy primer. When I got the car 5 yrs. ago, the body was largely bare metal. I did the necessary welding of new metal (lots of it) and then procedded to apply an good coat of PPG epoxy primer.
I finished all the bondo work and the glazing to fill in minor pin holes. This was 4 yrs. ago. Now advance to present day.
After taking the time to get the chassis done and other things, I got back to to the body. I took more time to finish sand and any bare metal was shot with epoxy primer. I sanded the whole car and existing parts with 80 grit, then 180, then 320. Then applied 3 good coats of Dupont filler primer which filled in any remaining scratches.
I let that dry for one full day then wet sanded the whole car again in 400 wet to remove all orange peel. Now i got it all re- taped up and applied the final coat of Dupont epoxy primer. The filler primer must be top coated with an epoxy as it will wick moisture if driven in all types of weather.
I am driving the car in primer for a year before I put it in color to make sure if there are any problems down the road, they can be fixed without screwing up a nice paint job.
Some may think this is alot of un-necessary time and work but anyone who has done paint and body knows that a paint job is 95% preparation and 5% shooting the paint. That goes for primer or final coats.
Also besides the time involved which I figured to be about 70-80 hrs of prep work, I also spent about $900 on materials.
$400 of that was just in the past week for filler primer at $225 a gal + activator and $180 for a gal. of epoxy primer and hardener. Not to mention the cost of sandpaper, bondo, glazing putty,welding wire, etc.
I have an good friend who has a custom paint shop in my area. His work is beyond nice and he points me in the direction of how his shop would do the work I am doing.

i always dry sand filler . any polyester will suck up moisture.

Sanding polyester primer wet is not a problem due to the fact that it is put over an already hardened epoxy primer. The moisture of wet sanding won't penetrate and even it it does, the epoxy is a barrier against the moisture already.

polyester primer is nothing more than sprayable filler . it will absorb moisture just like filler will. even sanded fiberglass will absorb moisture. if you do wet sand it let it have time to dry out. it's not so much moisture getting to the metal as it is trapping moisture in the filler or primer.

If you get the body slick enuff, can't you just roll it on with a Walmart roller and pan?

That shop towel look

cool, looks like a bunch of nekkid wimmin'

Originally Posted by MelloYello

cool, looks like a bunch of nekkid wimmin'

you realy are a "DOM" arent you

No women there, it's galloping horses!!!

Hot rod mag several years ago, did a article on a roll-on rustoleum paint job. It was extremely labor intensive, but extremely cheap and end product looked pretty good.

( in response to the joking comment about rolling on paint )

Originally Posted by stovens

At the last car show here locally, a guy had a 57 Chevy 2 door in twotone green. He took it to Maaco and provided his own paint. They did a beautiful job and color sanded followed by clear coating. He said it was about 3500.00 Mind you he did all the prep and provided the paint. He said there was still a bit to do for around 1500.00 more. I think the comment of going to the cheap fast paced centers is valid. They may use cheap product, but they do know how to paint! For me I'll never pay 10k for paint, because I have way to many things that need to be done that I can't afford that for a weekend driver. But I can tell you summit is selling paint and clear coat, etc. that one of the hotrod magazines featured a few years ago. The paint isn't expensive, and it's suppose to be good quality. One of the guys at the Nevada store, showed me his car, that he painted with it. It looked fantastic to me. I bought their paint for when I paint my truck, but meanwhile the air quality laws changed in this part of California, to where it would be illegal to spray here. 45 minutes north of here it is still leagal! So I guess when the time comes, I'll go to a Maaco far enough north to get it sprayed!
I'm not advocating buying cheap stuff, or low quality, because in the end you will get what you pay for, but it depends on what you can afford and living within your means. Do the best you can with what you can. Many people on here have built some fine cars for reasonable budgets. Will they be featured in GOODGUYS, probably not, but who cares. As long as your happy with it, then it's good enough. In this economy it's a miracle people have 20k for a paintjob!

Amen to that, though I can understand it with some peoples show vehicles that I've seen. I would LOVE to go get myself a paint job done in a house of color paint or some of those PPG hughes, THAT I can understand paying a good amount of money to have done. I can also understand someone bringing in a rust bucket and needing a ton of body work, I can see this running 20 grand.

I cannot myself justify spending probably anymore than 5k on my paint job, I dont need awesome paint though I would like it. Im fairly young (28) and do not make a ton of money, its this kind of thing that scares my generation away from this hobby. That and they do not know much about it, hence the reason you see a kid with 15k in his motor in an eclipse, a car thats now worth 1000 bucks.

I'm totally floored at the prices you guys are talking about. The last car I painted was my 1970 Caprice in 1976, switched from gold to burgany, did all the jambs etc., took 1 1/2 gallons of Laquer.... Total price for paint was $55.00

I was talking to a friend yesterday who had just finished wet sanding and polishing a Falcon for a buddy. The guy had spent several months getting everything straight, and then filling & sanding to perfection. They hauled it to a local truck shop on a weekend where one of the guys had permission to use the paint booth. He said that the guy spent $3,800 in materials - filler, tape, masking paper, sand paper, primer and paint. That's just materials, no labor as his friends donated their time to pay back old favors.

wonder why rat rods are popular???????????????????/